


Caramel Lattes and Thirteen Dogs

by reesespuffs1



Series: Random Harry Potter One-Shots [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Draco as a temp worker, Draco talks a lot, Fluff and Angst, Harry as a bookstore owner, Harry listens and loves it, M/M, slight angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-30 10:10:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20095564
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reesespuffs1/pseuds/reesespuffs1
Summary: Harry is shocked to see Draco walking 13 dogs down the streets of muggle London and they end up being mushy.





	Caramel Lattes and Thirteen Dogs

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this while at sleep away camp, with no phone. It was hell and I was bored, so you're welcome.

At Hogwarts, Draco Malfoy had been a real ponce. He was a bully, he was self-centered and stuck up, and he always did what his father told him to. And his father was an even bigger douche than _he_ was.

Since Malfoy (junior) had been such a dick, Harry was completely floored when he saw him in Muggle London, with over ten leashes connected to an uncountable amount of dogs.

With a _smile_ on his face.

Harry didn’t think he had ever seen a genuine Malfoy smile before. It had always been smirks and pointy grins.

But alas. There he was, walking his dogs (they couldn’t all be his, could they?!) and smiling.

Harry was so dumbfounded, he nearly dropped his coffee. And Harry loved his caramel lattes.

As much as he had hoped to go unnoticed, Malfoy soon caught his gaze, and the smile faltered a bit.

But then it came back even brighter than before and Harry actually did drop his coffee. Although he caught it before it could fall very far, avoiding major spillage because he wouldn’t- couldn’t- waste a good £4.

Malfoy directed his dogs over to where Harry was standing. They were in one of the less crowded parts of town and it was 10am, so they were almost completely alone. Harry was on break, in front of his bookstore. 

When Malfoy stood in front of him, at least seven dogs immediately started sniffing around, probably smelling Luna’s dog from when he visited them earlier that morning.

The dogs pulled Malfoy forward, drawing him closer to Harry. The brunette couldn’t tell if he was uncomfortable because Malfoy was too close, or because he wanted him to come even closer.

“Hullo, Harry. Can I call you Harry? ‘Potter’ just seems so childish now that we’re older.”

Harry nodded sheepishly. Draco spoke quickly, and it threw him for a loop.

“Harry’s fine, I guess.” Harry scratched his head and took a sip of his drink to give himself time. “What are you doing here? I mean, I haven’t seen you around before.”

Draco nodded.

“My usual route was blocked off for repairs. It’s a shame too. There was a nice park on that road. No other entrances. Despite that, I had to find a new way to go, so I brought the dogs on a new adventure. Are you always here?”

Harry smiled when one of the bigger dogs jumped up on him.

“I own this shop. And I live upstairs, so I suppose I’m always here. It’s nice. Quiet.”

Draco hummed.

“It is sweet. I saw a quaint little coffee shop on my way here. It looks very nice. And there was a pet shop too. It made the boys go wild. Not my girls, though. They were wonderful. Waited patiently while I got them all snacks.”

He knelt down, arranging the leashes to suit. He grinned up at Harry as he pet the furry critters.

“Would you like to feed them treats? Bruno, Ginger, Lola and Knight seem to like you very much. And Knight isn’t very social, so this is a nice surprise.”

Harry looked around. Sure enough four dogs were huddled close to his legs, looking up at him with their tongues lolled out and panting.

He nodded and watched as Draco went in his bag for the treats, while spouting out nine other names. Harry didn’t know what to do with this Draco.

This Draco talked fast, with a lot of things to say, and his expressions were soft, open and, dare he say it, cute. It felt like whiplash to go from the pompous, annoying Malfoy who made bad choices, to this adorable, rambling Draco, who took care of dogs, that Harry still didn’t know if Draco owned.

He had to find out.

“Are they all yours?” Harry finally asked when Draco had given him thirteen treats exactly.

Draco laughed.

“Merlin, no. I could never do that. I love these darlings, but I could never live with them 24/7. No. I’m a temp.”

“A temp?”

“I go through an agency and get random jobs. This is one of the long term ones. It’s a great career, in my opinion. I get to experience new things all the time while still having a small routine. It’s nice.”

“Wow,” said Harry, in near disbelief.

Draco chuckled.

“Unexpected, I know. After my father died and my sentence was up, I kind of had nowhere to go. And since, muggles don’t exactly know I’m a war criminal from the wrong side, it made sense to come and live with them.

“I mean, of course I was fucking terrified at first, since I was always taught that they were awful. But they really aren’t as bad as everyone kept telling me. They’re probably even better than us, since so much of what they have is purely from intelligence. They don’t have any magic like us, so they’ve made so much more things that make life easier.

“And they make things that are just so much better. Like pens! Merlin, pens are so much easier to write with than quills.”

Harry laughed, shocking himself with how abrupt that was. He was still reeling from everything Draco was saying: he was a temp, he thought muggles were better than wizards, and he liked pens. _Pens_!

Harry just didn’t know what to do with this Malfoy.

So he knelt with him. He drained his cup, looked around and vanished it. The treats- shaped like bones- were given to each dog, Draco reminding him of each name as he fed them.

Knight had been the one that jumped on him earlier, and he was still sticking around, so when Harry went to stand back up, the dog tried to climb his legs, resulting in him lifting the huge puppy.

“Oh… That… That’s so cute.” For the first time since they started talking, Draco Malfoy stuttered.

Harry blushed and hugged the dog close, still on his leash.

“I’m really, really sorry to have to cut this short, but we need to get going. I promised to bring them back by 11 and we don’t know this road yet,” Draco said, after looking at his leather watch.

“Uh, yeah. Of course. No problem.”

Harry bent down and put Knight on the ground, and stood awkwardly, hands in his pockets.

Draco tugged on the leashes, and with a wave and lots of barking, Draco and the dogs began to jog away.”

“Uh… Draco!” Harry shouted before he could lose his Gryffindor courage or Draco was out of earshot.

The blonde stopped, dogs struggling to pull him away.

Harry cleared his throat quietly and looked away from Draco’s questioning gaze so that he couldn’t lose his cool.

“If you’d like to pass by again, without the dogs, the shop’s open from 9 to 2.”

Draco smiled softly and when Harry finally looked at Draco’s face, he saw a little glint in his eyes.

“Yeah? I’ll think about it then.”

Then he was jogging away again, almost running with the dogs, stopping occasionally to look into store windows.

Harry, grinning like mad, turned and went back inside his building.

*

Two hours later, the bell rang above the door in Harry’s shop and he looked up and smiled.

“Draco. Back so soon?”

Draco grinned back.

“I decided to stop by the coffee shop I saw earlier. I got a white chocolate mocha. It’s really good. I don’t know what you drink, so I couldn’t get you any. And I didn’t see any treacle tart, but there was pumpkin pie. I figured since pumpkin juice was such a favourite in school, the pie would be a fine substitute. I got two cinnamon rolls and-”

“You remember that I like treacle tart?” Harry was in awe. Even Ron sometimes forgot his favourite foods, and now Draco was saying that he bought something based on his favourite _drink_.

“Well, yeah. Don’t you remember _my_ favourite desserts?” Draco asked while taking out the pie.

Harry thought a bit.

“I guess I do. Sugar quills and chocolate? And apple strudels, preferably, but not necessarily with, cinnamon, right?”

Draco nodded with a smirk.

“See? It’s not so weird. In your case, it might be, though. With or without cinnamon, wow. Creepy~”

Harry stuck his tongue out, and gratefully took the pie.

“Sugar quills aren’t really that great anymore, though. They changed the formula sometime last year. It’s more quill than sugar if you know what I mean. They messed up the whole ratio attempting to be ‘healthier’. It’s dumb because they’re supposed to be _sugar_ quills you know? Chocolate is still amazing though, thank Merlin. You can do so much with chocolate. And cinnamon is and always has been the best spice.”

Draco grinned at his own cheekiness.

“Why do you like treacle tart so much? You don’t particularly like sweets, so I’m not really sure why. If you don’t mind me asking, of course.”

Harry smiled and shrugged.

“It was the first thing I ate when I got to the Wizarding World.”

Draco’s grin spread right across his face.

“So it’s more sentimentality than taste then? That’s adorable. White chocolate cake is my sentimental food. My mom and I would get up really early on my birthday to help the house elves bake it. My father was usually out in the morning, so by the time he was back, the cake was already out on the table. It stopped when I was eight, though.”

Draco’s mood shifted and he hung his head slightly, hair falling in his face.

“Father came home earlier than expected and caught Mum and I taking the cake out of the oven. It was my second worst birthday.”

He had a small frown, and his right hand moved up to rub at his left forearm, and there was a little silence.

Harry hated what it indicated. He was hit with a sudden wave of anger and he reached over the counter to grab Draco’s left arm.

“You got this on your birthday?” Harry’s voice was full of hate and his gaze was burning.

Draco nodded, but he looked slightly scared.

“Your father was sick, you know that right?”

Draco bit his lip and nodded again meekly.

“You deserved to grow up better. I remember your favourite foods, don’t think I’ve forgotten how depressed you were in sixth year. You weren’t cut out for that life. You never were. You were a dick, yes. But you were never evil, Draco.”

His hand trailed down to Draco’s, and he cautiously laced their fingers together.

He looked into Draco’s face.

“This,” he gestures to the mark, “does not define you, Draco. I hope you know that. You are no longer your past.”

“When did you get so wise?” Draco asked while squeezing Harry’s fingers, eyes glistening.

Harry grinned and shrugged.

“I’ve been seeing a Mind Healer. It’s what she told me a couple years ago before I made the decision to move here.”

Draco smiled.

“I’m glad we’ve both moved on.”

Harry bit his lip, and decided to take a leap.

He took his other hand and brushed Draco’s hair back, leaving his hand cupping Draco’s face.

“I don’t think I’ve _completely_ moved on, though.”

Draco unconsciously leaned into Harry’s touch and had a confused look on his face.

“What do you mean?”

Harry laughed.

“I thought I was the oblivious one.” He shook his head. “I like you Draco. There was a strange admiration when we were in school, but now that I’ve met you again, I’m even more enthralled. You’re so enthusiastic about everything and you always know what to say. Maybe you’ve always been like that, but I think it’s cute. You’ve grown up, Draco. And so has my admiration.”

Draco’s eyes were wide.

“We’ve barely even seen each other since school. This is the second time we’ve seen each other in 4 years. And it’s been less than three hours.”

Harry shrugged.

“I’d like to get to know you much better, though. Would you let me?”

Draco’s blush spread as fast as a fire and he nodded, the hand not captured in Harry’s grip reached up and touched the other hand on his face.

“Of course. But only if you’d allow me to do the same. All I know about you is that you own and live in a bookshop, and that you’re good with dogs.”

Harry smiled.

“I like caramel lattes.”

Draco beamed.

“And that you like caramel lattes.”


End file.
